1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a lamp socket. More specifically, the present invention relates to a lamp socket that is attached to a U-shaped cold cathode tube.
2. Background Information
A conventional lamp socket is attached to both ends of a U-shaped cold cathode tube inside a liquid crystal module. The lamp socket has a pair of left and right supporting concave components. The left and right supporting concave components hold and support the two ends of the U-shaped cold cathode tube. The left and right supporting concave components are formed at both ends of the lamp socket. Holes are formed on the bottoms of the left and right supporting concave components, respectively. Two lamp wires connected with solder to pin terminals of the U-shaped cold cathode tube are pulled out below the lamp socket through the holes, respectively.
Meanwhile, there is a conventional liquid crystal-use backlight. With the liquid crystal-use backlight, wiring is connected substantially vertically to both ends of a cold cathode tube. These connections are covered with lamp sockets that have a substantially L-shaped exterior and are hollow in their interior. Notches are provided along a center axis direction of the cold cathode tube from a mouth of a hole on the cold cathode tube side of the lamp sockets. With the lamp sockets, load can be reliably reduced when the lamp sockets are mounted to the connections between the cold cathode tube and the wiring (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2006-318841, for example).
There is also a known cold cathode discharge lamp device. With the lamp device, two ends of a cold cathode discharge lamp are supported in support holes of a pair of holder/sockets equipped with lead wires. A temperature sensor is disposed at an outer peripheral part of the cold cathode discharge lamp near at least one of the holder/sockets, and sensor-use lead wires are guided out from the holder/sockets (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-6426, for example).